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Getting Started with MicrobeWorld

Microbes are excellent at adapting to stressful situations, which is part of the reason antibiotic resistance is a problem today. Constant exposure to antimicrobials such as triclosan have selected for resistant strains, rendering the compound ineffective. This is why the FDA recently banned t...
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A new 3-D printed, easily assembled smartphone microscope developed at Stanford University turns microbiology into game time. The device allows kids to play games or make more serious observations with miniature light-seeking microbes called Euglena.

In an attempt to preserve and defend the good name of the salmon fished in his state, Senator Warren Magnuson (D-WA), introduced in 1969 a bill in the US Senate pro­po­sing to change the name of Salmonella to the more in­oc­cu­ous sounding Sanella. In some circles it may seem com­for­ting to th...
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Two vaccines against Zika virus developed at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine have successfully conveyed immunity from female mice to pups conceived weeks after the mother's vaccination.

When challenged with Zika virus within a week of their birth, both vaccines protected the p...
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A new study shows that when heat-susceptible bacteria living symbiotically in the guts of insects are exposed to increased temperatures, both the bacteria and the insect are negatively impacted and can die. The study, reported online this week in the journal mBio®, illustrates another way globa...
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The Nobel Prize for Medicine this year went to Dr. Yoshinori Ohsumi of the Tokyo Institute for Technology for his work on autophagy, the process of digesting unneeded or damaged cellular components. This process plays a role in many central cellular activities, with applications ranging from gen...
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Ten years ago, Takema Fukatsu, PhD, prime senior researcher and leader, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) in Japan, was invited to Kyoto University as a symposium speaker of a meeting organized by Kenji Fujisaki, PhD, a researcher in the University's Graduat...
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Wesley Morovic explains his journey from a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Wisconsin to DuPont. Learn more about what he does, how he got to his position, and what you should do to get there.
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It is not unexpected that the contemplation of bacteria and archaea should focus so much on the nature and im­portance of their cell envelopes. Here, after all, is the in­ter­face between the cell's interior and the outside world. It is also what a host perceives early on when becoming infected....
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Jeremy joins the TWiVeroids to tell the amazing story of how the function of the HIV-1 protein called Nef was discovered and found to promote infection by excluding the host protein SERINC from virus particles.

I've just recently finished TWiM number 133 and wanted to comment about the use of the term "secondary metabolite" throughout the episode and often in the primary literature. Michael pointed out that a se...
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In the second of two shows recorded at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, Vincent meets up with faculty members to talk about how they got into science, their research on RNA viruses, and what they would be doing if they were not scientists.

In my previous posting (Part 1), I reflected on the historical change of the new ASM governance. Here I would like to highlight some key issues that I see facing ASM and its new governance structure. This is not a prescriptive list, but rather a list of goals or, if you prefer, a straw man for ...
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Communication of experimental results via publishing is one of the most important steps of the scientific method; if you don’t share your results, how will knowledge within a field grow? A well-written article contextualizes the author’s data into a broader scientific landscape, which allows rea...
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I thought this area of bryostatin study might spark your interest. It has the potential to treat cancer and Alzheimer’s disease. Whether looking at the way the compound is formed in nature or the challenge of synthesizing the compound is fascinating.